The New Milton Cross' Complete Stories of the Great Operas
Revised and Enlarged Edition
"This is a book of stories - the stories of the great and enduring operas.
To me the stories in this volume are never old, never timeworn. I've enjoyed retelling them here as I have on the air. indeed, this book has in a sense grown out of the broadcasts, for through the years nothing has given me more pleasure, I think, than the letters from listeners, newcomers, and seasoned operagoers alike, telling me how important the stories had been in the appreciation and enjoyment of the music. A disturbing element, however, has been the number of people who told me that they wanted to know the stories in greater detail than we could tell them. I can't say how many thousands of times I have explained that the synopses preceding the broadcasts were brief only because of the limitation of time. I do know, though, with what pleasure I have tried to work into the stories in the book the color and flavor and detail that I have never had the opportunity to use on the air. I have retold them here as fully, as clearly, and as carefully as I could. Whatever faults there may be this time are mine alone.
This book then is an attempt to fill a need to tell the stories of the best known operas completely and accurately, with every bit of essential action described, with every important musical section indicated, with the relationship between action and music clearly defined. In later sections of the book the study of the libretti and the scores themselves is recommended. ButI am fully aware, of course, that frequently the libretti and scores are not available and that, even when they are, many readers are not yet ready to study the operas in such detail. Then, too, even the most ardent opera enthusiast must admit that libretti in English translation are too often both inaccurate and dull. I hope that as the stories are retold here, with all of the distinctive passages-such as the opening lines of each aria-given in the language in which the opera is sung, they will provide all of the essential landmarks so necessary to a true understanding of the operas."
Conteúdo:
FOREWORD
PART I. THE STORIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS
L'Africaine, Meyerbeer
Aida, Verdi
Amahl and the Night Visitors, Menotti
L'Amore Dei Tre Re, Montemezzi
Andrea Chénier, Giordano
Arabella, Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos, Strauss
Un Ballo in Maschera, Verdi
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini
The Bartered Bride, Smetana
La Bohème, Puccini
Boris Godunof, Moussorgsky
Carmen, Bizet
Cavalleria Rusticana, Mascagni
La Cenerentola, Rossini
Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
Così Fan Tutte, Mozart
Don Carlos, Verdi
Don Giovanni, Mozart
Don Pasquale, Donizetti
Elektra, Strauss
L'Elisir d'Amore, Donizetti
Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart
Falstaff, Verdi
Faust, Gounod
Fidelio, Beethoven
La Figlia del Reggimento, Donizetti
Die Fledermaus, Strauss
Der Fliegende Holländer, Wagner
La Forza del Destino, Verdi
Der Freischütz, Weber
Gianni Schicchi, Puccini
La Gioconda, Ponchielli
Hänsel und Gretel, Humperdinck
Lakmé, Delibes
Lohengrin, Wagner
Louise, Charpentier
The Love for Three Oranges, Prokofiev
Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti
Madama Butterfly, Puccini
Manon, Massenet
Manon Lescaut, Puccini
Martha, Flotow
The Medium, Menotti
Mefistofele, Boito
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Wagner
Mignon, Thomas
Norma, Bellini
Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart
Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck
Otello, Verdi
Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
Parsifal, Wagner
Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy
Peter Grimes, Britten
Rigoletto, Verdi
Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner
Das Rheingold
Die Walküre
Siegfried
Die Götterdämmerung
Roméo et Juliette, Gounod
Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss
The Saint of Bleecker Street, Menotti
Salome, Strauss
Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns
Simon Boccanegra, Verdi
La Sonnambula, Bellini
Tannhäuser, Wagner
Thaïs, Massenet
Tosca, Puccini
La Traviata, Verdi
Tristan und Isolde, Wagner due Pragil
Il Trovatore, Verdi
Turandot, Puccini
Wozzeck, Berg
Die Zauberflöte, Mozart
PART II. How TO ENTOY AN OPERA
PART III. A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPERA
PART IV. THE BALLET IN OPERA
SELECTED READING GUIDE
INDEX
